Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-15
JIM HASTINGS DUCK.
The Part which 1t Played II
Developing a Rich Mine.

| - AesSs.
An antiquated individual, dressed il
exceedingly shabby clothes, and witt
a gray hirsute appendage to his chin
that would have made an ambitiou
goat of the male persuasion feel decid
edly envious. ambled into the room
of the State Mining Bureau yesterday
He Immediately began to inspect the
varieties of ores and minerals on exhi
bition there as if he was an Officer
regularly appointed by the State fol
that purpose. His advent upon the
scene was soon made apparent by 6
series of cultural sounds which he
emitted at intervals of five seconds
At last these sounds eliminated in 8
prolonged:
e4'Howlin' snakes!"
He was standing before some par.
ticularly fine specimens of gold quartz
81 s'pose they call that gold," he
snorted, addressing meek little man
who stood beside him.
The meek little man nodded assent.
"Wagh," with another snort, this
time indicative of disgust. "D' they
call them specimens of 40? Say,
don't reckon you were ever up at
'Cuss the luck bar, were you?"
81 don't think l ever was" said the
meek man, thoughtfully.
"Of course you never knOwed Jem
Hastings then; me and him ran the
bar in the early fifties. Talk of gold.
Why we wouldn't trouble bout them
ere chunks of gilded rock. We he'd
the Jumps of solid metal big as your
hand. Where dye 'spose our mine
was?'
"Give it up" was the laconic reply.
"Right in the middle of Mudhen
lake, and twas tur'ble deep down,
too."
The meek little man began to show
signs of interest, and inquired how
they got the auriferous article from
the watery depths.
"Ah," pursued the ancient one with
a chuckle, chats where our genius
came in. You see, Jem owned a big
duck. It's name was Buster. We
discovered the mine in this way.
One day Buster was diving and
havin' royal time in the water,
and after he had been sportin'
about this way for bout an hour We
seed him swimmin' to shore with
something shiny in his beak. Cuss
me if 'twasn't nugget of gold. 'Rah,'
says Jem, 'our fortunes made
He took Buster and petted him and
give him solid meal OF cold grub.
Wal, that kinder encouraged the bird,
and as soon as he he'd stuffed himself,
Buster jest went out on that ere lake
again and begun diving and bringin'
up the gold at Il great rate. Ye kin
jest bang me with pick-handle if
Buster in the course of the next two
hours didn't work like Il digger
Iniun when he gifts flask of
whisky, and pile up reg'lar heap of
little nuggets on the shore. Then he
got kinder tired, and we took him and
the gold to the tent. WAL" contin-
ued the ancient narrator, taking a
deep breath, 1--WE worked Buster for
two days and var had better b'lieve
that we had goodish sight of gold.
More'n twenty-five pounds, | guess.
Then an ijee struck Jem. He con-
cluded thar there were bigger nuggets
at the bottom of the lake which Buster
couldn't handle. So we rugged up a
new scheme. We threw a big sack
into the lake with rock in it so that
it would sink, and with a rope tied to
the top of it. Fust we showed it to
Buster, and he quacked as if he
knowed just what it was for, and
when we throwed it into the lake Bus
ter followed. He was out of sight in
a minute, and stayed under long
time. Next we seed him poke his
head up for minute, as if to
breathe, and then go down again.
He's film up the sack, sure,
says Jem. In bout an hour Buster
swan ashore and cooked his weather
eye up at us as if to say: It's all
right Jem and l took hold of the
rope to pull the sack in; but it would
MT bulge, twas so loaded with gold.
Wall, to make a long story short-it
grieves me to think of it-Jem got
mad and waded in to get better grip
and got caught in an undercurrent, or
somethin', and was drownded.
Buster was sittin' on the shore
watchin' proceedings an when
he seed Jem go under he jest
gave one agonizin' quack, and jumped
in, too. He act'ally committed sui
eide for love of Jem. | couldn't git
the bag ashore, so | cut the rope off
short. | left with what gold was in
the tent, but lost it in unfortunate
speculation. Now, what l propose is
this: / know the location of that ere
lake, and if | could git some capitalist,
like you, for instance"
"Say," cried the little man, indig-
nation getting the better of his habit
ual meekness, "did you ever hear of
Ananias?"
"Annie Nice?" said the "tough"
customer, thoughtfully; "she mought
hev lived over in Poor Shoat's camp,
but Pm DANCED if there was Il petticoat
of that name our way"
"IIere," cried the diminutive man
again, "take this quarter and go and
buy pamphlet edition of Baron
Munchausen."
"Thankee," muttered the other, ac-
cepting the silver; "that will do to-
wards organizing an explorin' party.
But lemme tell you somethin' bout
the childhood days OF Jem's duck"
But the little man had vanished and
the self-styled relic of the departed
days of gold lost no time in following